dccanon
Doctrine & Covenants
Section 125
Jehovah answers a direct inquiry about the Saints scattered through Iowa Territory. The command is practical and unambiguous: gather to appointed places, build named cities, and secure inheritances — specific land, specific locations, specific stakes. Zarahemla is to be named and built opposite Nauvoo; Nashville and Nauvoo are named alongside it. The gathering here is not figurative — it is the literal covenant-land pattern operating in real geography. The phrase 'prepared for that which is in store for a time to come' signals that physical gathering to appointed cities is the necessary precondition for what the Lord intends to unfold.
1
What is the will of the Lord concerning the saints in the Territory of Iowa?
2
Verily, thus saith the Lord, I say unto you, if those who call themselves by my name and are essaying to be my saints, if they will do my will and keep my commandments concerning them, let them gather themselves together unto the places which I shall appoint unto them by my servant Joseph, and build up cities unto my name, that they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come.
3
Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite the city of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zarahemla be named upon it.
4
And let all those who come from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, that have desires to dwell therein, take up their inheritance in the same, as well as in the city of Nashville, or in the city of Nauvoo, and in all the stakes which I have appointed, saith the Lord.
